Brown May Miss Next Start

An MRI exam Friday confirmed that pitcher Kevin Brown has a lower abdominal strain, and there is a chance the right-hander will miss his next scheduled start Tuesday night in San Diego.

Brown was listed as day to day. He is not expected to go on the disabled list, but the Dodgers want to see whether his soreness dissipates or lingers over the next few days before making a decision about Tuesday.

If Brown can’t pitch, left-hander Wilson Alvarez will start, and if Alvarez joins the rotation, the Dodgers will probably bolster their bullpen by adding a reliever from triple-A Las Vegas and demoting a position player.

“I don’t want to start thinking along the lines of making [Guillermo] Mota our sole long reliever,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “That would interrupt our flow of using setup men Paul Quantrill and Paul Shuey. And I don’t want to run Mota out there for three or four innings and not have him available the next day.”

Brown, who gave up five runs -- two earned -- and eight hits in five innings of Thursday night’s 7-4 loss to San Diego, appeared to injure himself while running from first to third on Wilkin Ruan’s double in the fourth inning. Brown was unavailable for comment before Friday night’s game against Arizona.

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The Boston Red Sox, who have struggled to find rotation depth beyond Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe and Tim Wakefield, have expressed interest in Dodger pitcher Andy Ashby, but with Brown in limbo, the Dodgers are not eager to trade Ashby.

Talks between the teams might heat up if the Red Sox were willing to part with second baseman Todd Walker, who is batting .303 with eight homers and 48 runs batted in, but Boston has been looking to trade utility player Jeremy Giambi, and the Dodgers have no interest in him.

Giambi, an outfielder/first baseman, is batting .173 with five homers and 13 RBIs in 43 games and is considered a below-average defensive player. Ashby, who took Darren Dreifort’s rotation spot in early June, is 2-4 with a 4.64 earned-run average.

Ashby’s $8-million salary has been a roadblock in trade talks with most teams, but that wouldn’t deter the Red Sox, who have received encouraging reports about Ashby from pitching coach Dave Wallace, the former Dodger executive who moved to Boston in early June.

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First baseman Fred McGriff was activated off the disabled list Tuesday, but his strained right groin is still nowhere near 100%. McGriff did not start Friday night, the second time in four games he has not started.

“I got up [Friday morning] and said, ‘No way,’ ” McGriff said. “If it’s bad, really bad, I’m not going to go out there. It all depends on how I feel when I get up in the morning.”

McGriff, who aggravated the injury while stretching for a throw at first base in the eighth inning Thursday night, said his leg was “about 80%,” but if he’s not at full strength, why was he activated?

“Personally, you always want to play,” McGriff said. “But we have enough good players on the team to win ballgames. We haven’t done that, but we have good enough players.”